Ambient particulate matter air pollution
has become a serious environmental
issue and poses grave threats to public health globally. The indoor
and outdoor air protection could be achieved by filtering devices
and facial masks. The development of air filter to eliminate particulate
matter pollution from the air is necessary for human safety. To realize
this, here a class of nanofiber air filter is reported with high efficiency
and very low pressure drop. By controlling the surface chemistry through
cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, it is achieved a >99.9% removal
efficiency
under extreme hazardous air-quality conditions for PM2.5 with quality factor of 0.469 Pa–1 and low ∼11
Pa pressure drop. The dipole moment and intermolecular interaction
between the nanofibers and PM2.5 are investigated by density
functional theory calculations. A long-term 15 day filtration test
has proven that the nanofiber air filter maintains an excellent efficiency
of 99%. This work pushes forward a significant step toward the design
and development of high efficiency and a very low pressure drop air
filter for various applications.
Particulate matter (PM) in air frequently
poses a serious threat
to human health. Smaller PM can easily enter into the alveolus and
blood vessels with airflow. This work reports the first polyacrylonitrile
(PAN)/polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) polymer blend nanofiber filter media
for effectively capturing PM. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations
are used to investigate the effect of the blending of two polymers
on the dipole moment and the electrostatic potential. Based on the
DFT calculations of the intermolecular interactions between nanofibers
and PM, the PAN/PVP heteromolecular percentage is considered for experimental
synthesis, which can provide better performance in the filtration
of pollutants. The composite PAN/PVP fiber network was successfully
developed and optimized to cope with complex environments during the
actual filtration process. The role of the blending ratio of PAN and
PVP in wt % was explored on PM2.5 capture, and the refined
ratio overcame the conflict between high filtration efficiency and
low air pressure resistance. The air filter medium PAN/PVP (6:2) possesses
an extremely high air filtration efficiency of 92% under a very low
pressure drop of 18 Pa for a 0.5 g m–2 basis weight.
Both polar and nonpolar functional groups in blend nanofibers promoted
significantly the electrostatic attraction and improved the filtration
efficiency under static and dynamic airflow. The PAN/PVP nanofiber
membranes maintain outstanding air filtration under different temperature
and humidity conditions. This study will shed light on the fabrication
of high-efficiency low-basis weight nanofiber filter media as an end
product.
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